Detective story is one of the first literary genres to be introduced to China during the late Qing and early Republican periods. In the twenty years from 1896 to 1916, thirty-two titles of Sherlock Holmes stories were published in Chinese, including the versions by important literary figures like Lin Shu, Liu Bannong and Zhou Shoujuan. These translations, with their omissions and changes, were a long way from what we would call "faithful" renditions. A careful analysis of these versions will reveal that the omissions and changes were systematic and intentional. This thesis deals with early classical Chinese translations of Sherlock Holmes stories. Focusing on the issue of "suspense", the most important component of Western detective stories, and the topic of characterization, it will discuss the translation strategies adopted by early Chinese translators and to try to identify the motives behind the surface changes made to the originals. As this study indicates, the early Chinese translations of the English popular fictions are not "detective" stories in the English sense of the word, but a hybrid form of Western plots mixed with elements of Chinese gongan xiaoshuo, or "stories of court cases".